The Dark Lantern: A Novel

Jane Wilbred is an orphan whose mother murdered someone and she has been living with that stain on her reputation ever since. She was taken from the orphanage to work for the minister and his wife so that she could be trained as a housemaid. Now she has found a position in London as a second housemaid. In order to get the position she forged her employer's reference letter and this ensnares...more

Jane Wilbred is an orphan whose mother murdered someone and she has been living with that stain on her reputation ever since. She was taken from the orphanage to work for the minister and his wife so that she could be trained as a housemaid. Now she has found a position in London as a second housemaid. In order to get the position she forged her employer's reference letter and this ensnares her in one lie after another. Her new employer has a past that she doesn't want disclosed as well, the other servants also have their secrets and everyone suspects everyone else. A secondary plot line has to do with the conflict between fingerprinting and anthropometry to aid crime solving. As well accepted as fingerprinting is now it is hard to believe that at the end of the 19th century there were many people who felt that anthropometry, the measuring of people's physical dimensions, was a more reliable way to determine criminal identity. The discussion of this dispute and the minute description of the work involved in maintaining a household really added to the depth of the book. There's a book club discussion guide at the back of the book and I think it would be a good choice for a book club interested in historical novels.   hide

Odd upstairs, downstairs story with dark comments on both sides